ROLL CALL: Mayor Landry, Mayor Pro Tem Gatt, Council Members Fischer, Margolis – Absent/Excused, Mutch, Staudt, Wrobel

1. Cadillac of Novi, Site Plan 11-10, For Special Development Option Concept Plan Approval - No public comment was received.

 Chief Molloy said on May 7, 2011 the second annual Emergency Run was held in partnership with Providence Park Hospital, the Novi Police Department, the Novi Fire Department and the City of Novi. He said 200 runners and 140 walkers participated in the event. He honored the overall 3 top winners. Elle Robinson was the first overall winner with a time of 21 minutes and 22 seconds. Joost Plaetinck was the second place winner with a time of 21 minutes and 22 seconds. Katsuyuki Imagawa was the third place winner with a time of 21 minutes and 42 seconds.

Elle Robinson said this was her second time running the race and she really enjoyed it. She looked forward to future races at the Emergency Run.

Chief Molloy said they had an outstanding partnership with Providence Park Hospital beyond the Emergency Run. He thanked and recognized Jean Meyer and Lou Martin and their staff for their great work.

Ms. Meyer said it was always a vision of Providence Park Hospital to be a place to promote health and wellness. She said they were proud to be able to sponsor the event.

Mr. Cardenas said the Novi Road construction season started and would be closed to through traffic. Businesses were still open.

A. Approve Minutes of:

1. May 9, 2011 – Regular meeting

B. Enter Executive Session immediately following the regular meeting of May 23, 2011 in the Council Annex for the purpose of discussing pending litigation and privileged correspondence from legal counsel.

C. Approval of a resolution authorizing cost participation for improvements to Meadowbrook Road between Ten Mile Road and Cherry Hill Road under a Federal Surface Transportation Program grant and local cost share agreement with the Michigan Department of Transportation in the amount of $82,600.

D. Approval to award an amendment to the engineering services contract for construction engineering services related to the C & O and Cedar Springs Regional Storm Water Detention Basin Improvements project to URS Corporation, in the amount of $28,097.

E. Approval to award an amendment to the engineering services contract for additional construction inspection related to the water main and sanitary sewer relocations for the Novi Road Link (Ten Mile Road to Main Street) widening project to Spalding DeDecker Associates, Inc., in the amount of $27,675.

F. Approval to award a construction contract for the C & O and Cedar Springs Regional Stormwater Detention Basin Improvements project to Oak Construction, the low bidder, in the amount of $93,885.

G. Approval of a resolution of support for the "Commerce, Walled Lake and Wixom Trailway Management Council" grant application to the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund (MNRTF).

H. Approval of the request of the applicant, ACR Investments, for a one-year extension to the termination date provided in the PRO Agreement for Triangle Place, SP07-22, a 2,575 square foot office or retail development, proposed to be located on a 0.48 acre parcel of land located on the east side of Haggerty Road, north of Eight Mile Road.

I. Approval of Resolution to close Ten Mile road from the Novi Civic Center to Taft Road and Taft Road to Nine Mile from 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) of Detroit’s Festival of the Chariots Parade Saturday, July 23, 2011.

J. Approval of Claims and Accounts – Warrant No. 844

Matt Quinn, representing Cadillac of Novi, said when they brought the Hummer Dealership to Council many years ago it was a unique opportunity because there were no Hummer Dealerships in the community and General Motors chose Novi to be the recipient. He said Novi was now chosen to be the recipient of a Cadillac Dealership. He said they came to Council previously, on a temporary basis, for signage to convert the Hummer Dealership to the Cadillac Dealership and they were back to make it permanent. He said the project would cost close to $2 million for the changes. He said it went along with the additional vacant building that the owners of Cadillac bought at the end of Jo Drive. He said they received a Special Land Use to do car prep work inside the building and to store vehicles outside the building. He said the Cadillac Dealership had sensitive lands and they agreed to preserve the sensitive lands. Within the development, they were going to add to the showroom area on the east and add new canopies in the reception area and service lineup area. He said they would have a larger showroom area, a service reception area, a parts department, service department, and administrative offices. He said the addition would allow them to meet some of General Motors requirements. There was a large book of site plan requirements that a dealership must meet. He said the current dealership was stuck in the middle between providing the requirements for Cadillac and the requirements of the City’s Site Plan processes. He said the dealership would also be adding to their outdoor display with a stamped concrete area in front of the entrance to the dealership where cars would be displayed. He said there would be a 3 foot wall around the Grand River side of the dealership to shield everything going on inside the site. They were trying to make an inviting entranceway for the Cadillac buyer. He said the stone would match the band of stone that went along the building, around the top, the cornice and around the windows. He said the east side of the building would be of the same stone material. He said they needed a small variance from the ordinance requirement, on the east side they were 6% short of brick but would be 8% over of the new stone material, which had been recommended by the City’s architectural consultant. He said besides the new construction area, there was a Hummer demo track which Cadillac’s do not need and would be torn out for new parking areas to be created. He said they were asking for a variance from the ordinance for the end islands of parking, instead of being raised with a curb they were asking that it be flat and painted because the rear area was where lease vehicles being turned in and cars being brought for trade in would be parked. A truck hauler would be brought in to pick them up and it could only get around the circle with that modification to the end islands. He said the other variance they were looking for from the ordinance was called average to minimum site lighting. To him it meant that across the entire site there was supposed to be an average lighting and if they deviated from that average, they couldn’t go below a certain minimum. He said right now their site did go below the minimum way in the back, but 2 additional light poles there would be a needless expenditure because it was very well lit as is. He said the new sign package was in the middle of the General Motors requirements and the City’s requirements. Previously they had the Hummer sign, and then they had a temporary Cadillac sign on the east side facing Grand River which was going to be removed. He said being proposed on that side was the new Cadillac sign with the script Cadillac centered on the larger wall. He said the other new signage on the east side of the building was also the Cadillac script; it would be on the inside of the site towards the parking lot and visible to people traveling westbound on Grand River. He said they were looking to add 2 monument signs which said Cadillac of Novi with the Cadillac symbol and each entrance of the dealership. He said currently the people traveling southbound on Meadowbrook could not see any signs identifying the building as Cadillac and the only way to fix that was to put a monument sign there. The other monument would be at the Grand River entrance. He said as a car came down the hill driving westbound on Grand River, if the driver missed the site they had to go through the entire intersection and then go in the back entrance. He said by identifying that as the driveway entrance, there would be a better traffic flow into the site from that area. He said the final sign was an insignia on the wall at the vehicle pad on Grand River and would sit behind the vehicles.

Mr. Cardenas said the concerns from Engineering and the Fire Marshall had been resolved. He said the staff was not recommending the sign changes because they greatly exceeded the ordinance standards that were currently in place. The staff suggested that the signs remain as currently approved and thought no increase in sign or number was warranted. He said there were 3 approvals that needed to take place, the SDO Concept Plan Agreement, approval for the Preliminary Site Plan, and approval for the Storm Water Management Plan.

Member Wrobel asked the staff what their opinion was of the monument sign height of 5 feet.

Ms. McBeth said both monument signs proposed exceeded the ordinance standards by having signs on both sides, as well as the overall area. She said the staff believed that directional signage may be appropriate but what was being proposed exceeded ordinance standards.

Member Wrobel thanked Mr. Wood for investing more in the City of Novi. He said he liked the changes and thought they would make it more attractive. He said he would be supporting it and had no issue with the signs because they were tastefully done, not overbearing, and identified the location better.

Member Staudt echoed the comments of Member Wrobel and said he would support the motion on all 3 counts.

Member Fischer appreciated the change and the investment. He asked Mr. Quinn about the requirement that General Motors mandated versus the compromise that the owner was making.

Mr. Quinn said Cadillac was asking for the same things as General Motors. He said if they had to throw away any insignias, it would put them in a compromising position.

Member Fischer said the way he understood it, there would be an entry monument sign off of Grand River, as well as an elevation sign on that side.

Mr. Quinn said the Cadillac sign was there and they were asking that a monument sign be added to the Grand River side.

Member Fischer asked if he felt it would be redundant to have a wall sign and an entry monument sign.

Mr. Quinn said the sign on the wall identified the building and the monument identified the entrance to the parking area. He thought it would be the first thing to be seen driving westbound on Grand River.

Member Fischer confirmed there were no other buildings going on the property and then asked for Mr. Quinn’s thoughts on directional signage as opposed to the monument signs.

Mr. Quinn said directional signage was too small to be seen from on top of the hill and he wanted someone driving down the hill to see the entrance. He said the square footage of the monument sign would meet the ordinance requirements if it were someplace else.

Member Fischer said he didn’t have an issue with many of the requests and he was inclined to agree with City staff regarding the signage. He said he would like to see a similar compromise because it was the Gateway District to the City and they were throwing caution to the wind when it came to the sign ordinance. He said there were several dealerships within the City and he couldn’t think of one that came close to the type of sign requests being made; so he would like to see some type of compromise.

Member Mutch said he didn’t have any particular concerns with the requests being made with the exception of the east building sign. He said the fact that the existing sign was going from 40 square feet to 200 square feet seemed beyond a reasonable request. He said what jumped out about that sign was that it would be larger than the sign on the front of the building which was very visible and clearly identified the dealership. He said he understood Mr. Quinn’s point that for somebody coming westbound on Grand River, the dealership wanted to identify itself but he thought that could be accomplished with the existing sign. He recalled Member Fischer saying this was the only building on the site and the only building for several hundred yards preceding it on Grand River and it was right at the intersection. He didn’t think anyone coming westbound on Grand River would have any challenge finding the dealership with a smaller sign. He said he would be comfortable if the sign was comparable to the sign on the front of the building which would bring it down to a smaller sign but larger than what was currently there. He said he was fine with the monument signs even though they didn’t quite meet the ordinance requirements.

Mayor Pro Tem Gatt said he didn’t have any problem with the requests. He said he lived in the area and drove past the building many times per week and if you didn’t know what you were looking for you would drive right past the building if you were coming southbound on Meadowbrook from 12 Mile or westbound on Grand River. He thought the proposals were excellent and they would do much to enhance the City and the business in the City. He said what they were forgetting was that this was something General Motors was requiring not just Mr. Wood and his dealership.

Mayor Landry said the only thing he had a problem with was the size of the sign. He said he didn’t have a problem with the monument signs because Mr. Quinn was correct; it didn’t look like an auto dealership and they knew that when it was constructed. He said they were the ones that required all the brick and he was part of the group that drafted the Gateway ordinance; they specifically wanted a lot of brick in that area. He said he did have a problem with the size of the sign on the east, but if they reduced the size of it he didn’t have a problem with anything else.

Mr. Quinn said the old sign on the east side of the building was 40 square feet and they were asking for 200 square feet. Mr. Wood said he would agree to modify that to 100 square feet in the spirit of compromise.

Mayor Landry said the sign on the front of the building facing the southwest was 64 square feet.

Mr. Quinn said the 64 square foot sign sat on a smaller façade than would the one on the east which sat on a larger façade and had to be addressed to vehicles farther away than at the intersection because once you were at the intersection you could see the smaller sign on the building. Mr. Quinn corrected that the sign on the front of the building was 91½ square feet as proposed.

Ms. McBeth said they were working off of the best plans they had when they came up with the numbers and they received some closer numbers the day after the packets went out. She said the sign on the east side they thought was 200 square feet turned out to be closer to 248 square feet, which was the one Mr. Wood just said he would be willing to reduce to 100 square feet. She said on the southwest building elevation, they thought it was 64 square feet, but was really 91 square feet. She said the other correction was the medallion signs were a little bit larger.

Member Fischer asked for the square footage of the Rock Financial sign facing I-96.

Ms. McBeth said in similar districts they would expect one wall sign that would be a maximum of 65 square feet or one monument sign that would be 35 square feet but not both.

Member Fischer said he appreciated the willingness for compromise but he still thought, given that Council was inclined to support a monument sign on that eastern side, as well as a sign larger than any other sign on the building, he didn’t know if he would be willing to go to that length. He said he understood there were some issues with contractual agreements and franchise agreements with General Motors, but they had those many times in the past and ZBA did a great job of dealing with that and compromising with the local owners and the major business. He said he was willing to support the other pieces of the proposal but not the signs at that point.

Mayor Pro Tem Gatt thanked Mr. Quinn and his team for compromising. He was prepared to vote yes on the first endeavor and was certainly prepared to vote yes on this one.

Mayor Landry asked if there was just going to be a crest on the monument signs or if there were going to be words as well.

Mr. Quinn said it would be the only place that it said Cadillac of Novi.

Mr. Dellicolli said the sign was 5 foot high and 7 foot wide and it said Cadillac of Novi with the crest bearing down below it. He said it was set on a stone monument made out of Indiana Sandstone.

Mayor Landry confirmed the reason the words were in a different type was because it was a trademark.

3. Consideration of adoption of Ordinance No. 11-23.27, to amend Chapter 22, "Offenses," Article II, "Offenses Against Public Administration," Section 22-96, to amend the standards for the regulation of alarm systems to clarify that residential burglar alarms are subject to the excessive false alarm penalties.　 First Reading

Mr. Cardenas said there was a deadline of July 1^st to implement the new language. He said the only issue on hand was the option of possibly reducing the Planning Commission numbers because when the act was first adopted to establish the Planning Commission, the makeup of 9 members was required, but that was no longer in effect so Council had the option to reduce the Planning Commission to possibly 7 or 5 members, or keeping it at 9 members.

Member Mutch asked if the number of members on the Commission was something the City Council could revisit at some future time to expand or contract within the range.

Mr. Schultz said that was correct.

Mayor Landry said he would support the motion. He said 9 was a large group and they had the opportunity to change back if there was a problem. He thought they should give 7 members a try.